A heavy downpour soaked the circuit prior to start time, although from start time the sky lightened and by the time of the evening’s finals, a dry line was starting to appear.  The meeting commenced with a parade lap for Ministox racer 577 Harry Darby who had won the British Championship at Cowdenbeath the previous weekend.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

With 26 cars a two-thirds format was deployed.  Heat one saw 948 John Brereton and 222 Adrian Watts spin out in the west bend.  128 Jack Bunter made the most of his white grade start to lead the opening half of the race until caught and passed by 325 Ryan Sheahan.  Behind, there was a tremendous battle between 315 Justin Fisher and 667 Tommy Farrell which came to an end when Fisher’s attempted hit on the rear of Farrell only succeeded in the latter spinning out himself.  Sheahan ran out the winner from Bunter despite a late charge by 127 Matt Stoneman who was closing fast at the end.  890 Paul Rice was in dominant form in heat two, hitting the front early on and remaining unchallenged to the flag.  Whist the winner was never in doubt there was plenty of interest for those looking on.  970 Archie Farrell on his BriSCA F2 debut was caught out on multiple occasions by the track conditions, spinning a number of times.  418 Ben Borthwick and 35 Charlie Fisher enjoyed a fine battle, the two swapping places on multiple laps for the minor places whilst Justin Fisher made up for his spin in the opening heat shoving Bunter wide on the final bend to claim second.  Rice was again the driver to beat in heat three but behind him a chaotic race unfolded with most of the field involved in either a spin or a collision at some point during the race.  This included many of the star graders with Tommy Farrell and Borthwick tangling in the west bend, whilst Stoneman hooked together with 320 Matt Hatch on the back straight.  The Final looked like Rice was in line for the hat-trick as he raced through the field, but trouble lay ahead.  Justin Fisher smoothly climbed up the order, and relieved Rice of the lead.  Rice then got caught out by what looked like oil dropped in the west bend and careered into a pile up of cars, with 24 Jon Palmer joining the growing list of casualties also being caught out.  Fisher continued to avoid the chaos and edged further and further clear.  At one stage, Fisher was half a lap ahead of his nearest challenger having consistently set the fastest laps of the race.  His son Charlie had earlier spun around on the pit bend, but such was the tumultuous nature of the race he found himself back up to fourth by the chequered flag with an excellent charge in the final few laps, as he followed home Sheahan and Borthwick who completed the podium spots.  Fisher remarked in the post-race interview that he was unsure why the car was going so well as he was not known for his form in the wet at Smeatharpe, remarking that he was perhaps even more chuffed for the fourth place result for his son, Charlie.  The Grand National saw Rice complete that hat-trick – good reward for the hard work to repair in the pits, the car having required a double tractor off the circuit following the final.  Without a caution, Fisher’s fifth place finish from the last lap handicap reinforced the pace he had shown during the evening.

Ministox

With a late swelling of bookings, 24 cars arrived to contest a two from three heat format.  The opening heat didn’t last too long with 870 Bertie Farrell slowing to a halt on the entry to back straight and finding himself being collected by sister 970 Millie Farrell who was leading at the time.  382 Corey Hunt led the field off on the restart and quickly built up a lead of more than half a lap to take a comfortable win.  Second went to 207 Alfie Flecken was third spot was in doubt with 907 Cadan Davies leading 914 Callum Faulconbridge and 217 Josh Dent.  On the last bend, Faulconbridge shoved Davies wide, but Davies managed to keep enough momentum to retain third at the flag.  Hunt was again in dominant form in heat two winning again by a healthy margin.  202 Cody Bradford and Darby rounded out the other trophy positions.  770 Austin Farrell made an audacious attempt to regain fourth on the final bend, but his attack on the rear quarter of the Faulconbridge car bounced the latter heavily off the home straight fence, although he did hold on to his position.  Heat number three was a stop-start affair with a yellow flag required with hen 920 Wayne Wadge required attention in the west bend.  On the restart 617 Christina Sillifant found herself facing the wrong direction on the home straight but managed to rejoin just as 902 Reagan Davies and Dent spun out on the entry to the back straight requiring a further stoppage.  Newly crowned British Champion Darby broke clear at the front on the restart as Davies, 917 Troy Hemmins and Tomkins engaged in an enthralling battle for second.  That was finally settled when Hemmins forced his way past into second with half a lap to go.  Cadan Davies and Austen Farrell were each docked two places in the final result having been adjudged to have disobeyed the race-receiver instruction to avoid contact on one of the earlier rolling lap restarts.  928 Jess Coombes led the opening stages of the Final with 567 Mia Farrell in second.  Both held these positions for some time before being caught by Millie Farrell who then built a sufficient lead to take an excellent win.  Behind her another fine battle for second saw Darby, Hunt and 202 Cody Bradford duke it out for position, the trio finishing in that order, the race being quickly halted at the flag after 242 Amy Williams spun car was struck by Faulconbridge, despite the car having remained in the same position for the final three laps of the race.

Bangers

A large grid of Bangers also raced to a two thirds format.  The opening heat featured 23 cars is a high speed affair with 929 Sam Baker coming through from the rear of the field to take a comfortable win.  The second race of the evening featured more incident including a pile up between turns one and two which allowed 2 Harrison Staples to move from fifth to first in the space of a few metres, whereupon he charged home to the flag.  Heat three saw 862 Darryl Cock dumped into the plating in the west bend as again Staples charged up through the field to claim his second win of the evening.  The Final was one of the best races of the night.  At the green 58 Martin Dalton charged into the rear of the dawdling 652 Kristian Gale, the force setting off the passenger side airbag in the Dalton people carrier.  238 Jake Hughes overtook 303 Josh Jones for the lead, but Jones struck back straight away depositing Hughes into the 652 car.  621 Scott Kendall also found himself stranded on the home straight creating a chicane for the remaining drivers with a stoppage called for with Kendall’s driver’s door facing the oncoming traffic.  A tremendous battle over the final four laps then developed between Jones and 836 Adam Oldham for second and Baker and 296 Phil Chapman for the lead, those two racing side by side for a number of laps.  In a remarkably close finish, Baker challenged Chapman on the final bend, but in the drag to the flag, Chapman was declared the winner by the narrowest of margins.  Baker made up for the disappointment of missing out in the final with a win in the Allcomers.